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Gallery Text

An employee at the Ministry of Finance, Victor Chocquet (1821–1891) met Degas in 1875, and by the second impressionist exhibition, in 1876, had become an avid supporter of the progressive artistic movement, collecting works by Renoir, Monet, and Cézanne. Here Renoir paints his new friend and patron dressed in casual attire. With his hands informally clasped across the bottom left corner of the canvas, Chocquet’s pose suggests the sitter’s closeness with the painter. Chocquet had identified Renoir as the inheritor of the romantic painter Eugène Delacroix’s approach to color. Renoir acknowledges this compliment and pays homage to the celebrated colorist by including one of Delacroix’s preparatory studies from Chocquet’s collection in the background. The study was for a lunette in the Hôtel de Ville (Paris city hall), which was destroyed in 1871.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.274
People
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French (Limoges 1841 - 1919 Cagnes)
Title
Victor Chocquet (1821-1891)
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Portrait of Monsieur Choquet
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1875
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230204

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2700, European and American Art, 19th century, Impressionism and the Late Nineteenth Century
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
53 x 43.5 cm (20 7/8 x 17 1/8 in.)
framed: 67 x 57.8 x 8.3 cm (26 3/8 x 22 3/4 x 3 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l.: Renoir

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Painted, 1875, to Victor Chocquet, the subject, 1875, sold [through Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, not part of listed lot]; to [Durand-Ruel, Paris], sold; to Adrien Hébrard, 1906. Prince de Wagram (Louis-Alexandre Berthier), Paris. [Jacques Seligmann], sold; to Grenville Lindall Winthrop, 1930, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.274
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Georges Riviere, Renoir et ses Amis, Henri Floury (Paris, France, 1921), repr. opposite p. 36
  • Albert Andre, Renoir, G. Crès et Cie (Paris, France, 1928), p. 7
  • James Bolivar Manson, "The Renoir Exhibition in New York", Apollo (November 1929), vol. X, no. 59, pp. 256-260, pps. 256-260, repr. p. 256
  • H. M. McBride, "Renoirs in America", Art News (May 1, 1937), vol. XXXV, p. 69, repr.
  • Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes, Jades, Paintings and Drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art; selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1943), p. 11
  • Agnes Mongan, "Before and After Impressionism", Art News (January 1, 1944 - January 14, 1944), vol. XLII, no. 16, pp. 22, 31, repr. p. 22
  • "Sixteen Reproductions", Harvard Alumni Bulletin (Cambridge, MA, January 8, 1944), vol. XLVI, pp. 217-20, repr. in color
  • Rosamund Frost, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Hyperion Press (New York, NY, 1944), repr. p. 20
  • John Rewald, The History of Impressionism [1st ed.], The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY, 1946), repr. p. 291
  • Michel Drucker, Renoir, P. Tisne (Paris, France, 1955), repr. pl. 27
  • "The Businessman and the Artist", Harvard Business School Bulletin, Harvard Business School (Cambridge, MA, February 1958), vol. 34, no. 1, repr. p. 31
  • Encyclopedia Universale dell'Arte, Istituto per la Collaborazione Culturale (Rome, Italy, 1961), repr. in b/w p. 318 as tav. 209
  • Germain Seligman, Merchants of Art, exh. cat., Appleton-Century-Crofts (New York, NY, 1961), repr. pl. 47, p. 149
  • Anthony Bosman, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Blandford Press (London, England, 1961), repr. no. 47
  • William Gaunt, Renoir, Phaidon Press (London, England, 1962), no. 23, repr.
  • Paul Zucker, Styles in Painting: A Comparative Study, Dover Publications Inc. (New York, NY, 1963), p. 158, fig. 124
  • Lawrence Hanson, Renoir, the Man, the Painter, and his World, Dodd, Mead and Co. (New York, NY, 1968), repr. following p. 110
  • Richard Murphy, The World of Cezanne, Time-Life Books (New York, NY, 1968), repr. p. 70
  • John Rewald, "Choquet and Cezanne", Gazette des Beaux-Arts (July 1969 - August 1969), p. 53, fig. 13
  • Pierre Cabanne, Renoir, Réalités-Hachette (Paris, France, 1970), repr. p. 71
  • François Daulte, Auguste Renoir: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Editions Durand-Ruel (Lausanne, Switzerland, 1971), vol. I, repr. in b/w no. 176
  • Elda Fezzi, L'Opera Completa di Renoir nel periodo impressionista, 1869-1883, Rizzoli Editore (Milan, Italy, 1972), repr. in b/w pl. 255, p. 99
  • "Treasures from New England: Special Section for the Nation's Bicentennial", The Boston Globe (Boston, MA, September 12, 1976), fig. 3, repr. in color p. 10
  • Alice Bellony-Rewald, The Lost World of the Impressionists, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England, 1976), repr. p. 82, text p. 83
  • Barbara Ehrlich White, Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1984), repr. in b/w p. 60
  • Caroline A. Jones, Modern Art at Harvard: The Formation of the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums (New York, NY and Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press, 1985). With an essay by John Coolidge and a preface by John M. Rosenfield. To accompany the inaugural exhibition at the Sackler Museum, Oct 21 1985 - Jan 5 1986, repr. in color fig. 8, p. 23
  • Edmund Burke Feldman, Thinking About Art, Prentice-Hall, Inc. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1985), repr. in color fig. 2-48, p. 63
  • Melissa McQuillan, Impressionist Portraits, Little, Brown & Company (Boston, MA, 1986), repr. in color, p. 140 and text
  • Kimio Nakayama, Runowaru [Renoir] (Tokyo, Japan, 1986), repr. in color p. 20
  • Bruce Bernard, ed., The Impressionist Revolution, Orbis Publishing Ltd. (London, England, 1986), repr. in color p. 65
  • Nicholas Wadley, ed., Renoir: A Retrospective, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc. (New York, NY, 1987), repr. in color pl. 35, p. 99
  • Michael Hoog, Cezanne: "Puissant et Solitaire", Decouvertes Gallimard/Reunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 1989)
  • Anne Distel, Les Collectionneurs des Impressionistes: Amateurs et marchands, La Bibliothèque des Arts (Paris, France, 1989), repr. in color no. 107, p. 126
  • Raffaele de Grada, Renoir, Arch Cape Press (New York, NY, 1989), repr. in color no. 26, p. 47
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 127, repr. as no. 379
  • Nobuo Abe, The Great History of Art: Impressionism (Tokyo, Japan, 1990 - 1991), repr. in color p. 74
  • Gilles Plazy, Cezanne, Chene (Paris, France, 1991), repr. in color, fig. 2, p. 82
  • Ingo F. Walther, Malerei des Impressionismus, 1860-1920, Benedikt Taschen Verlag (Köln, Germany, 1992), detail repr. in b/w p. 655
  • [Unidentified article], Geijutsu Shincho (Tokyo, Japan, 1993), no. 8, repr. in color p. 35
  • Götz Adriani, Cezanne Gemälde, DuMont Buchverlag (Köln, Germany, 1993), repr. in b/w p. 85
  • Anne Distel, Renoir il faut embellir, Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Editions Gallimard (Paris, France, 1993), repr. in color p. 47
  • John House, Renoir: Master Impressionist, exh. cat., Art Exhibitions Australia Limited (Sydney, Australia, 1994), repr p. 30 as fig. 8
  • Françoise Cachin, Cézanne, exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA, 1996), p. 167, fig. 1, repr. in b/w
  • Impressionist and Modern Art, Part I, auct. cat., Sotheby's (New York, NY, November 13, 1997), p. 25
  • Colin B. Bailey and John B. Collins, Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age, exh. cat., Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1997), p. 33, fig. 45, color
  • Sona K. Johnston, The Faces of Impressionism, exh. cat., Rizzoli (New York, NY, 1999), repr. p. 66 as fig. 14b
  • Gilles Néret, Renoir: Painter of Happiness, Taschen (Köln, Germany, 2001), pp. 186-187, repr. in color
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), no. 112, pp. 279-281, repr. in color
  • Christopher Riopelle, Harvard's Winthrop Collection: Nineteenth-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, exh. cat., National Gallery Company Limited (London, 2003), p. 36, cat. 23, ill.
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 112, pp. 289-290, repr. in color
  • Sammlung Oskar Reinhart "Am Römerholz", Schwabe (Basel, Switzerland, 2003), pp. 440-442, repr. as abb. 1 on p. 442.
  • Ian Kennedy, "The History of the Bloch Collection", Manet to Matisse: Impressionist Masters from the Marion and Henry Bloch Collection (Kansas City, MO, 2007), pp. 21-22, ill. p. 22 fig. 10.
  • Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, Renoir 1858-1881, Editions Bernheim-Jeune (Paris, 2007), p. 530, ill. as no. 541
  • Anne Distel, Inken Freudenberg, Christian Müller, Mariantonia Reinhard-Felice, Kerstin Richter, Arlette Sérullaz, and Jayne Warman, Victor Chocquet, Freund und Sammler der Impressionisten: Renoir, Cezanne, Monet, Manet, exh. cat., Hirmer Verlag (Munich, 2015), pp. 81, 83, 197, figs. 48, 114
  • Alex Danchev, John Elderfield, Annabelle Mathias, Mary G. Morton, Xavier Rey, and Jayne Warman, Cézanne Portraits, exh. cat., Gallimard and Musée d'Orsay (Paris, 2017), p. 93, repr. p. 96 as fig. 34
  • Kunitomo Keizo Collection, Himeji City Museum of Art: Modern French Paintings from Monet to Matisse, Uratani Saori (Himeji, Japan, 2024), pp. 8-9, 13-14, repr. p. 9

Exhibition History

  • Deuxieme exposition de peinture, Rue le Peletier, Paris, 04/01/1876 - 04/30/1876
  • Salon d'Automne, Grand Palais, Paris, 01/01/1904 - 12/31/1904
  • Chinese sculpture, bronzes, jades, paintings and drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art : selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/01/1943 - 02/28/1944
  • Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
  • Masterpieces of European Art, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 06/22/1985 - 09/15/1985
  • Modern Art at Harvard, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/21/1985 - 01/05/1986
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, 03/15/2003 - 05/26/2003; National Gallery, London, 06/25/2003 - 09/14/2003; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004
  • 32Q: 2700 Impressionism, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu